Comparison of Parental Attitudes before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate changes in parental attitudes and family variables during the COVID-19 pandemic. Survey methodology was employed to collect the data; the questionnaires included a family information form prepared by the researchers and the “Parental Attitude Research Instrument” (PARI), used to examine changes in parental attitudes related to the pandemic. The initial data, collected immediately before the outbreak of COVID-19, were compared with data gathered in May 2020, by which time the pandemic had already spread throughout Turkey. The research sample included 119 mothers with preschool children aged 5—6 years enrolled in four public schools. Our findings indicated that changes in family life and parental attitudes occurred during the pandemic. While scores measuring the two PARI subscales of dependency and egalitarianism and democratic attitudes increased, the scores for rejection of the homemaking role and strictness and authoritarianism decreased. According to the multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) results, there was a statistically significant difference between the time measurements (taken before and during the pandemic) with respect to the combined dependent variables of egalitarianism and democratic attitudes and strictness and authoritarianism, even after controlling for the demographic variables.